COMPANY NEWS

COMPANY NEWS; ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND IN TALKS WITH FARMLAND

Published: April 24, 2001

The Archer Daniels Midland Company, the nation's largest grain processor, said yesterday that it was in confidential talks with Farmland Industries, but declined to give any additional details. ''We will confirm we are in confidential discussions with Farmland, but we cannot go beyond that comment at this point,'' an Archer Daniels executive said in a conference call with analysts. Farmland, the largest farmer-owned cooperative in the nation, owns 13 grain elevators, with capacity of about 150 million bushels of capacity. Farmland officials said late last year that they wanted to sell the grain facilities.